Sir – I am compelled to leap (well, perhaps stroll) to the defence of the ‘Bearded One’, whose observations about Sebastian Coe clearly incensed Harry St John as much as does Witney’s traffic (Letters, July 26).


While Coe’s sporting achievements are undeniable, personally I favoured his rival Steve Ovett because the once-firebrand Leftie in me regarded their on-track tussles as being comparable to the wider struggle between the strident yuppies of the early 1980s and the ‘working’ classes, given the two men’s respective backgrounds.

My impression was hardly dispelled by Coe’s subsequent progression through the Tory establishment and, although I missed the offending article, perhaps a flavour of this is what lay behind the Starchy Griper’s comments also.
The potential reaction by Coe’s supporters envisaged by Mr St John, which would require the services of an experienced proctologist to remedy, seems unduly punitive given the irregular shape of an Olympic Torch (designed in Oxfordshire, appropriately). Eye-watering indeed.


La Gray’s own achievements were called into question too, somewhat uncharitably in my opinion. After all, gourmandising his way around the county and occupying some of the best seats in its various venues of entertainment and being remunerated for so doing surely must merit a lifetime award in the ‘wool-pulled-over-eyes’ category?


As for his sporting prowess, were a (gratis) double gin-and-tonic and bowl of juicy olives to be placed at the finishing line, I know without question on whom my money would rest in a hundred-yard dash along St Giles.
Robert King , Barkham, Wokingham